against her Infallibility However this shews That the most infallible Teacher cannot destroy our natural liberty of judging for we must judge of his Doctrine by Sense and Reason and see that it contradict neither which are the only natural Principles of Knowledge we have which is therefore to exercise all the Reason and Judgment which God has given us And Thirdly Though we must receive all Divine and Supernatural Truths upon the Authority of the Revealer yet we must own our own Reason and Judgment to understand the Revelation which cannot possibly be otherwise For whoever it be that speaks to us whether God by an immediate Voice from Heaven or a Prophet inspired by God we have no way to understand what is said but by our own natural Faculties and therefore must judge of the Sense of what is said just as we do at other times when any man speaks to us And if we were not present to hear the Prophet speak but have his Revelations delivered to us in writing we must take the same course to understand such a Divine Book as we do any other human Writing if there be any difficulty in it we must seek for some body to help us to understand it but still we must understand for our selves for no body else can understand for us and if we must understand we must judge for our selves too This is all that we demand or desire a liberty to understand and judge what God would have us believe and do and this the most infallible Teacher cannot deprive us of no more than he can oblige us to see and hear with other mens Eyes and Ears when God has given us Eyes and Ears of our own And Fourthly Where there is a standing Revelation we must then judge of the Doctrine of all succeeding Prophets how infallible soever they be by its conformity to the preceding Revelation We must never suppose that God can contradict himself and therefore though he may improve a former Revelation by new and more perfect discoveries yet he can never contradict it and hence it follows That no true Prophet can contradict a true Revelation but though a power of Miracles may give Authority to a new Prophet to expound a former Revelation and to improve it yet we must be well satisfied that the Doctrine of this new Prophet be agreeable to the old Revelation which makes us Judges of the Sense both of the old and the new Revelation For it is impossible we can understand their agreement unless we can judge of the Sense of both This was the Case of Christ and his Apostles when they appeared in the World The Law of Moses and the Writings of the Prophets were the standing Revelation which God had given to the Jewish Nation whereby they were to try all Prophets To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them Isaiah 8. 20. and therefore though Christ wrought more and greater Miracles than ever Moses did this alone had not been a sufficient Reason to believe him had not his Person answered the Types and Predictions of the Law and his Doctrine been not the destruction but the improvement and perfection of the Mosaical Dispensation To this trial he submitted himself and his Doctrine appeals to Moses and the Prophets requires them to search the Scriptures for they are they which testifie of me John 5. 39. and after his Resurrection from the Dead which one would have thought had been sufficient of it self to have confirmed his Divine Authority yet he proves from Scripture that thus Christ ought to suffer and to enter into his Glory and beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them the two Disciples going to Emaus the things concerning himself Luke 24. 26 27. And this course the Apostles took in their Sermons St. Peter did not only testifie to the Jews as an Eye-witness that Christ was risen from the dead but proves that David himself had prophesied of this Acts 2. 22 c. Thus St. Paul disputed with the Jews at Rome to whom he expounded and testified the Kingdom of God perswading them concerning Jesus both out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets from morning till evening Acts 28. 23. Thus his Epistle to the Romans is one entire Dispute about the obligation of the Law and Justification by Faith in Christ from the Types and Predictions of the Law it self So that Christ and his Apostles were certainly as infallible Teachers as everwere in the VVorld yet they did not bear men down meerly by their infallible Authority but appealed to the Scriptures and to every mans own Judgment of them and God had ordered it so that it could not be otherwise for he had given them a standing Revelation whereby they were to judge of all new Prophets whatever they were but if they must have relied on the bare word of such Prophets whom they were to try by this Revelation for the Sense and Interpretation of it this had been the same thing as to take their own word without any trial Now if Christ himself never pretended to any such Authority that all men should believe him upon his own word without examining his Doctrine by the Scripture or exercising their own Reason and Judgment can we think that he should give any such Authority to St. Peter Nay when it is evident that St. Peter never had any such Authority and never could exercise it how can St. Peters Successors have that in his right which he never had nor could have himself For though he was an infallible Teacher yet every man had a liberty to examine what he taught and to judge of it by its conformity to the Law and the Prophets But you I say Could not Christ appoint an infallible Judge of Controversies in his Church to decide all Disputes and to prevent Heresies and Schisms That Christ has not done this I shall take for granted till I see some better Proofs of it than I have yet met with and I have some reason to think such a Judge could not be appointed whom we should be obliged to rely on with an implicit Faith without examination or any use of our own Reason and Judgment and that is because it was impracticable to appoint a Judge upon whose bare Authority we are bound to believe the truth of Christianity it self Christ and his Apostles did not assume to themselves to be such Judges in their days for there lay an Appeal from them to Moses and the Prophets as you have already heard and so there does to this day and if I must not take any mans word for the truth of the Christian Religion I must not take his word neither for the truth of any Doctrine in Christianity If I may to this day examine the Gospel by the Law and the Prophets as the Jews did in our Saviours days then I must judge for my self too
Proof but themselves which shews that the very highest Certainty of all is nothing else but an intuitive Knowledge or the Minds seeing and discerning that natural Evidence which is in things and those who will not allow a clear and distinct knowledge to be the Foundation of Certainty must reject all Self-evident Principles which we can have no other Proof of but themselves at least no better for we cannot reason in infinitum and therefore must come to some first Principles which are known only by their own light and evidence Next to this are those Notions and Idea's which are so easie and natural to our minds that most men believe them by a kind of natural sense and instinct without reasoning about them and those who have no mind to believe them yet cannot rid their minds of them such as the Being and Providence of God and the Essential differences between Good and Evil. These are the next degree to Self-evident Principles for they are natural Notions which indeed may be proved by Reason and must be so when we meet with men who will deny them but yet a well-disposed Mind has a natural byass and inclination to believe them sees them to be true and evident without reasoning about them This is very plain the less of Reasoning there is required in any case the more there is of Certainty First and Self-evident Principles admit of no Reasoning Natural Notions require none and as for all other matters the nearer they lie to first Principles or natural Notions the more certain and evident they are nay we have no other certainty of the deductions and conclusions of Reason but their manifest connexion to some Principles and Notions which may be known without Reasoning which shews as I said before That all natural Certainty is at last resolved into an intuitive Knowledge and the Certainty of Reason is nothing else but the connecting those things which we do not know by Nature with those which we do Sixthly Where natural Knowledge and natural Certainty ends there Revelation begins but still Certainty is not Infallibility but Evidence and natural Evidence too For there can be no communication between God and Creatures as to revealing his Will but by the mediation of our natural Faculties whether the Object be naturally or supernaturally revealed we have only our natural Faculties to know and understand with and therefore we can have no more than natural Evidence of supernatural Revelations though this Evidence is owing to supernatural Causes As for Instance An inspired Prophet though he be infallible as far as he is inspired yet it is not his Infallibility that makes him certain that he is inspired but that certain Evidence he has that this Revelation comes from God which must either be by some external and visible Signs or by some such vigorous impression upon the Mind as carries its own Evidence with it which what it is no man can know but he who has it As for those who are not inspired themselves but must learn from inspired Men their Faith must depend upon that evidence they have for the Revelation the natural Notion of Gods Veracity is the reason why they believe what they know is revealed they must use their own Faculties to understand what is revealed and they must judge of the truth and certainty of a Revelation from such Marks and Characters as are evident either to Sense or Reason So that Infallibility sounds very big but signifies very little in this Dispute for all Certainty whether in natural or revealed Knowledge must be resolved into Evidence not into Infallibility Though an inspired Prophet is an infallible Oracle in those things which he speaks by Inspiration yet it is not his Infallibility but that Evidence he has that he is divinely Inspired which makes him certain much less can any man be infallibly certain who is not infallible himself how many infallible Teachers soever there are in the World For we may as well say That a man may be wise with another mans Wisdom as infallible by another mans Infallibility Every man must know and understand for himself and Infallibility is only such a perfect degree of Knowledge as is not liable to any mistakes and if no man has any Knowledge but what be has in himself then he has no degree of Knowledge but what he has in himself and therefore can never have an infallible Knowledge unless he himself be infallible Suppose then we should grant That the Pope or Church of Rome were infallible what advantage has a Papist for Certainty above a Protestant Does the Infallibility of the Pope make them all infallible And if every Papist be not not infallible then they can have no more Certainty than fallible Creatures are capable of and so much I hope may be allowed to fallible Protestants The Authority of a Revelation in matters divinely Revealed answers to natural Evidence in things knowable by the light of Nature as we cannot doubt of things which are plain and evident to our Understandings so we cannot doubt of what we know is Revealed by God but then as we must use our Reason to judge of the natural Evidence of things so we must use our Reason to judge of the truth and evidence and sense of a Revelation and it is the same Mind and the same Understanding which must judge both of natural and revealed Knowledge and if our Understandings be not infallible I know not how an infallible Judge or an infallible Revelation which are external things should bestow an internal Infallibility on us And therefore after all their brags of Infallibility Papists themselves must be contented if they can be certain for if Infallibility did signifie somewhat more than Certainty yet Certainty is the most that a fallible Creature can have for it is impossible for any Creature to have Infallibility who is not infallible himself And this I hope will make them a little more favourable hereafter to Protestant Certainty for whatever can be objected against Certainty in general as distinguished from Infallibility will as effectually destroy the Popish as the Protestant Certainty for Papists are no more infallible Creatures than Protestants are A DISCOURSE CONCERNING A Judge of Controversies BEING AN ANSWER TO SOME Papers c. The Paper I Am not satisfied with the Foundation of the Protestant Religion For if God has certainly left no Visible Judge of Controversies as we assert and yet grant that there are things necessary to Salvation to be believed as well as things to be practised and that the Scriptures are to a demonstration not plain even in what we dare not disown to be Fundamentals as the Trinity c. Answer These Objections against the Protestant resolution of Faith strike not only at the foundations of the Protestant Religion but of Christianity it self For if the Dispute were about the truth of Christian Religion by such Arguments as they can prove the Christian Religion to be true we will prove
as they did and not believe any pretence of Infallibility against my own Sense and Reason I cannot compare the Doctrine of the Law and the Gospel unless I understand them both and I can understand and judge only with my own Understanding and if I must have done thus though I had lived in our Saviours days surely I must do so now whatever infallible Teachers there may be in the World which I think is a demonstration that there neither is nor can be any such infallible Judge whom I am bound to believe purely upon his own Authority But it may be Objected That this proves too much and undermines even the Protestant Resolution of Faith into the Authority of Christ and his Apostles and the Writings of the New Testament as an infallible Rule of Christian Faith and Manners For it seems though we pretend to own their Infallibility yet we must examine their Doctrine by the Law and not believe them to be infallible till we have set in Judgment on their Doctrine and approved it as agreeable to a more infallible Rule and thus we believe their Infallibility because we like their Doctrine not believe their Doctrine because they are infallible Now there is so much Truth in this Objection that I cannot believe that Christ and his Apostles are Teachers come from God unless I be satisfied that they teach nothing contrary to any former Revelation which God has made of his Will for God cannot contradict himself and therefore whoever contradicts what God has before taught can be no true Prophet And therefore though Miracles alone were sufficient to give Authority to Moses who was the first Prophet by whom God made a publick Revelation of his Will yet Miracles alone were not sufficient to give Authority to any succeeding Prophets but their Doctrine also must be examined by its conformity to the Law for though Miracles gave them Authority to make new Revelations yet not to contradict the old So that to examine the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles by the Law so far as to see that they do not contradict it is no more than to examine whether they be true Prophets or not as all men ought to do before they believe any pretenders to Prophecy but when it appears that they do not contradict the Law then that power of working Miracles wherewith they are endowed obliges us to believe then in every thing else upon their own Authority And thus we own Christ and his Apostles to be infallible Teachers and consequently receive the Writings of the New Testament as an infallible Rule of Christian Faith because they were men endowed with supernatural Powers and did not in their Preaching contradict any former Revelation of Gods Will. And this is all that we do or need affirm to destroy the Pretences of an infallible Judge for if I must still judge for my self whether the Doctrine of the Gospel do not contradict the Law then I must judge for my self both of the Sense of the Law and the Gospel or else I cannot judge whether they agree or disagree and therefore there can be no infallible Judge to whom I must submit my own Reason and Judgment in this Inquiry for that were to own their Infallibility before I know whether they are infallible or not Though I must believe whatever an infallible Judge teaches yet I must not believe him till I know him to be infallible and I should think no pretender to Infallibility should exempt himself from such a trial as all Prophets after Moses even Christ and his Apostles themselves submitted to that is to have their Doctrine tried by a standing Revelation Now suppose the Pope or Church of Rome to set up for this infallible Judicature before I can own their Infallibility I must at least examine whether what they teach do not contradict the Law and the Prophets for thus I may and must examine the Gospel it self and if in any one thing they plainly and directly contradict the Law I have nothing more to do with their Infallibility for no man can be infallible who mistakes in any one thing The Church of Rome then teaches That we may give Religious Worship to Saints and Angels and Images Having the Law of Moses in my hand I turn to it and according to the best of my Understanding I find this Worship expresly forbid in the first and second Commandments No say they this is your mistake we are the infallible Judges and you must not trust your own understanding but take the sense of the Church in it By your favour Gentleman say I you are a little too hasty with your Infallibility when I am satisfied you are infallible I will trust you but I am now inquiring whether you are infallible or not and therefore as yet we are upon even ground and I must trust my own Judgment till I find one more infallible Now I say you contradict the first and second Commandments and therefore are not infallible and you would prove that you do not contradict these Commandments from your pretended Infallibility which is the thing yet in question Christ and his Apostles permitted men to judge for themselves whether they contradicted the Law and the Prophets and therefore suffered them to judge of the Sense of the Law too and so must you do also unless you pretend an exemption from all Trial and Examination which Christ and his Apostles never pretended to This shews that even to this day no pretence of Infallibility can exempt men from having their Doctrine tried by the Law and the Prophets for the Gospel it self may still be thus tried and therefore there can be no such infallible Judge as has any Authority to oblige us to believe any Sense they put upon the Law contrary to our own Sense and Reason for then such a Judge as this could not be tried by the Law For if he alone has Authority to interpret the Law no body can try him but himself And this plain Instance I have given of their contradicting the first and second Commandments utterly overthrows their Infallibility till they can prove not by their pretended Infallibility but by plain Reason and Argument that they do not contradict them And we desire no more than to set aside their Plea of Infallibility and we will reason the Case with them when they please And besides this by a parity of Reason this Argument reaches much farther For if the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles must be tried by the Law and the Prophets because no man can have any Authority against a standing Revelation then by the same Reason whoever should now set up for an infallible Guide his Doctrines must be examined by the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles which is now an infallible Rule to us And if the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles might be examined by the Law and the Prophets for the very same Reason the Doctrine of all succeeding Bishops must be tried by